Island



(No Model.)

H. 0. WEEDEN. METHOD OF AUTOMATICALLY FLUSHING THE BOWLS 0F URINALS. 660.

No. 416,142. Patented Nov. 26, 1889.

WITH EESEE.

N, PETERS, Phum-Lithcgrzpher, Washington, [LC- UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

HENRY C. TVEEDEN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE WEEDEN SANITARY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF RHODE ISLAND.

METHOD OF AUTOMATICALLY FLUSHING THE BOWLS OF URINALS, do,

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 416,142, dated November 26, 1889.

Application filed August 6, 1889. Serial No. 319,860. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY O. WEEDEN, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, a citizen of the United States,

5 have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Automatically Flushing the Bowls of Urinals and Analogous Structures, of which the following is a specification.

I My invention relates to an improved method of causing the liquid introduced from without into the bowl of a urinal or analogous structure,when in use, to automatically bring about the discharge into the said bowl of a I suitable quantity of clean water to thoroughly flush the same. It is obvious that this result-viz., the automatic flushing of such a bowl in consequence of and immediately after its use-is a very desirable one, and pos- 2o sesses many advantages over methods of flushing heretofore employed, in which the flushing action has been produced by mechanical means operated either by the user of the bowl or working automatically at fixed intervals.

As is well known, the devices heretofore most commonly employed for flushing such a structure as a urinal-bowl are of two classes, one class consisting of those in which some mechanism of the lever order attached to and operating the flushing-valve is to be moved by power applied by the'person using the bowl, the other consisting of those in which a movable tank, or tip-tank, so called, is caused by appropriate mechanism to empty itself into the bowl to be flushed at regular intervals. Each of those classes of devices has proved objectionable in practice. Apart from the objection common to both that they 40 necessitate the employment of mechanicallymoving parts of greater or less complication, expense, andtendency to get out of order, the first class, or those operated by the user, have this objection that in many cases, their operation being dependent upon his volition, the user neglects to operate them at all. The result is, that the bowl remains unfiushed, and thus becomes noxious and oftentimes dangerous from a sanitary pointof View. The other class, or that flushed at regular intervals,is objectionable on account of the large quantity of water consumed and oftentimes wasted in flushing bowls which have not been used and do not re uire it.

For the reasons above stated, among others, 5 5 it has long been desired to devise a method whereby the flushing of the bowl shall be antomatically brought about by reason of its use, and this without the introduction of any moving parts into the apparatus. So far as I am aware, but one method of accomplishing this result has heretofore been known, being that set out in English Letters Patent No. 13,018 of 1885 and No. 1,223 of 1887 to S. H. WVright, and also embodied in the apparatus patented to the same inventor in the United States, dated April 9, 1889, and numbered 401,321. TVrights method of producing the flush involved the use of a siphon-formed flushing-pipe, tlleSllOl'l leg of which entered the flushing-water in a suitable tank, and the long leg of which discharged into the bowl to be flushed.

To cause the siphon to be automaticallyoperated when the bowl is used, \Vright provided an air-exhaust pipe extending from the long leg of the siphon to a point below the bowl, and into this air-exhaust pipe, near its lower part, he introduced a second pipe leading from the lower part of the bowl, through which liquid poured into the bowl when in use would be discharged into the air-exhaust pipe. By causing the orifice of discharge into the air-exhaust pipe to be of less area than that pipe the liquid coming from the bowl entered the air-exhaust pipe in the form of a jet, and, operating on the well-known inspirator principle, gradually drew out the air from the air-exhaust pipe as the flow of the jet continued until enough air had thus 0 been withdrawn from the long log of the siphon to lower the air-pressure therein sufliciently to cause the siphon action to start. This method embodying the use of the jet or inspirator device is described and patented 5 by \Vright under the name of the part- .bore method, this title referring to the necessarily contract-ed discharge-orifice of the jet-pipe coming from the bowl and entering the air-exhaust pipe, so as to form a jet 10o therein. It has been found in practice that the practical requirements of the apparatus,

particularly in the case of urinals, have made it necessary to employ an air-exhaust pipe of very small cross-section. This necessitates making the j et-forming entrance therein of the liquid-pipe from the bowlst-ill smaller in cross-section. Consequently there is a tendency of the device to clog and become inoperative.

By my improved method of causing the liquid introduced into the bowl to bring about the flushing action automatically I encounter none of the objections found in the right method, as above set forth, because I do not make use of the jet or inspirator principle; and,furthermore, under my method exhaustion of the air in the siphon cannot begin until after the introduction of liquid be left in the trap.

In the accompanying drawing I have represented in diagram an apparatus in the operation of which my improved method of producing the automatic flush is carried out, and I will now proceed to describe the apparatus and its mode of operation, and thereby incidentally illustrate the method involved.

'In the drawing the tank shown at A, the siphon flushing-pipe shown at B with its back air cut-off or trap b, the bowl shown at O, and the air-pipe shown at D,are substantially the same as those employed in the lVright method, because my method, like his, involves the use of a siphon flushing-pipe set in action by the instrum-entality of liquid flowing from the bowl. My liquid-discharge pipe E, however, differs from \Vrights' in that at its junction with the air-exhaust pipe it is not contracted, and therefore produces no jet or jet action. An apparatus embodying my method, therefore, does not present the tendency to clog found in the contracted jet-orifice of the Wright method.

In communication with the liquid-discharge pipe E and the air-exhaust pipe D, I provide what I call a vacuum-chamber F. This vacuum-chamber must be of such a form. that liquid coming from the bowl through the discharge-pipe E may enter and pass through the vacuum-chamber, filling it full in so doin g. Furthermore, the vacuum chamber must be of a length sitflicient to furnish space for the expansion into it of enough of the air in the long leg of the siphon to produce the necessary diminution of pressure therein to start the siphon action. Now it is obvious that what I have termed a vacuunnchamher, and what is represented in the drawings by the pipe F, will not be a chamber containing a vacuum so long as the bowl is in use and liquid is flowing through the pipes E and F, because, as above pointed out, the pipes E and F must be so related in capacity that the discharge of liquid through E into E shall fill the latter full and keep it full as long as the flow continues from the bowl through the pipe E, and thence into and through the chamber F. Therefore no expansion of air in the long leg of the siphon can take place so long as the bowl is in use and the pipes E and F are kept full of liquid. As soon, however, as the flow of liquid is discontinued and the supply to the pipe F ceases, it is obvious that the subsequent withdrawal from that pipe of its contents by gravity will produce therein a vacuum-chamber constantly increasing in area as the level in the chamber F is lowered. This vacuumchamber is in communication with the air in the long leg of the siphon by means of the pipe D, and is cut off from the air in the bowl by a suitable air cut-offas, for example a trap-bend 6, formed in the pipe E, of such a depth that its seal shall not be broken by the exhaustion of air caused by the descent of the column of liquid in the pipe F to start the flushing-siphon. It follows, therefore, that as the gradual lowering of the fluid-level in the pipe F leaves behind it a vacuum-space of constantly-increasing size, into which the air in the long leg of the siphon is free to expand and enter, this expansion will take place, and when the air from the siphon has so expanded and entered to a sufficient degree to bring about the necessary lowering of pressure in the long leg of the siphon its siphon action will take place and the bowl will be flushed.

It will be perceived from the foregoing that by dispensing with a contracted jet-forming orifice I do away with the tendency to cloggin g at that point, and by the use of the vacuum-chamber principle, as distinguished from the jet principle, the withdrawal of the air from the long leg of the siphon cannot begin until the use of the bowl has stopped. This is a substantial improvement over any method in which a jet is embodied, because, as above pointed out, the jet begins to withdraw air as soon as the jet-flow commences, and this, as is obvious, is practically as soon as the bowl begins to be used. Moreover, the jet keeps on withdrawing air while the bowl is in use, and so, as above pointed out, frequently causes the flush to occur prematurely, or before the use of the bowl has ceased.

I consider it obvious that in the practical working out of my improved method many different varieties of apparatus may be employed, as it is clear that the idea of producing a vacuum by the descent of liquid which has passed through the bowl after the introduction of liquid therein has ceased might be embodied in very many mechanical forms, each differing mechanically from the others. I do not, therefore, in this application make any claim to any device as such whereby the automatic flushing of a urinal may be ob tained, but for the underlying method of accomplishing this result by the production of a vacuum of co11stantly-increasing area within a chamber communicating with the long leg of the flushing-siphon through the instrumentality of liquid passing away from the bowl after the use of it has ceased and through the said chamber, which method I believe to be original with myself.

In the drawing I have represented the application of my improvement to a urinalbowl. The liquid-discharge pipe E of such a bowl and its vacuum-chamber F must be suffieiently small in calibersay three-eighths of an inch in practiceto be filled full when the bowl is used. Therefore they will be ordinarily too small to take off the flushing-water supplied'by the flushing-siphon B, which in practice would have a capacity of threefourths of an inch. For this reason I show an overflow-pipe G to take care of the surpluswater. If, however, the bowl to be flushed were that of a slop-hopper, the discharge-pipe E and chamber F would be of such caliber that no overflow-pipe would be required.

I claim- The method of automatically producing a discharge of flushing-\'vater into the bowl of a urinal or analogous Vessel, which consists in causing the liquid introduced into the bowl in the act of using it to enter and fill a suitable chamber below the bowl and communicating with the long leg of a siphon adapted to flush the bowl, and afterward producing within the said chamber, by the gradual. Withdrawal of its liquid contents by gravity therefrom, a vacuum-space of such area that air from the long leg of the siphon may expand into said Vacuum-space to a degree sufiicient to start the siphon action and thereby flush the bowl.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 1st day of August, A. D. 1889.

HENRY (J, IVEEDEN.

\Vitnesses:

ELLEN B. TOMLINSON, JOHN H. TAYLOR. 

